Conductance oscillation and quantization in monoatomic Al wires

TL;DR

This study uses first-principles calculations to investigate how conductance in monoatomic aluminum wires oscillates with length, revealing that the oscillation period depends on the interatomic spacing within the wire.

Contribution

It demonstrates the dependence of conductance oscillation period on interatomic spacing in monoatomic Al wires through first-principles calculations.

Findings

Conductance oscillates with the number of atoms in the wire.

Oscillation period varies with interatomic spacing.

Period of oscillation can be four or six atoms.

Abstract

We present first-principles calculations for the transport properties of monoatomic Al wires sandwiched between Al(100) electrodes. The conductance of the monoatomic Al wires oscillates with the number of the constituent atoms as a function of the wire length, either with a period of four-atom for wires with the typical interatomic spacing or a period of six-atom with the interatomic spacing of the bulk fcc aluminum, indicating a dependence of the period of conductance oscillation on the interatomic distance of the monoatomic Al wires.